Sonic's Birthday Surprise
by Chiaki Uchiha
Summary: It's Sonic's birthday in three days and Tails is making him something that he knows he'll love, it is powered by a beautiful red Chaos Emerald, but fist he needs to see if it is the right side, so he asks Shadow to help him out.
1. Birthday Plans

The two-tailed fox sat in his workshop looking over the plans. It was perfect and all he had to do was build it, and test it, he had the Chaos Emerald, he held the ruby red emerald in his hand then looked back at the plans.

_Who can test it? It needs to be someone who is about the same size as Sonic, and would never give him even a hint of it._ Tails thought as he glanced over the plans once more.

Just that instance, he heard a crash in the distance, then laughter and then an angry yell, it sounded like Knuckles. Tails thought what could have happened when a black robot named Bokkun came running in, he closed the door to the workshop, not even a second later a white glove slammed through the door.

Tails quickly rolled up the blueprints and put then in a drawer and locked it with a golden yellow key, which he put on the table next to the emerald.

Knuckles finally broke the door down and Bokkun ran and hid under the desk. Knuckles looked at Tails, "Where did that robot go?" he asked, Tails shrugged then Knuckles went back out, "I can't believe I left the Master Emerald just to . . ." he mumbled as he walked away and back to the shrine holding the Master Emerald.

Bokkun stepped out from underneath the desk, "Thanks Tails, you're a real life saver. Well, I have to be off!" Then it occurred to Tails, the perfect person, or Hedgehog, to test out Sonic's present.

"Hey Bokkun, can you deliver a message for me?" he asked, Bokkun stopped and made a hand solute, "Whatever you say Tails!"

"Ok, here is the message: 'I need you right away, come to my workshop ASAP, Tails.' Ok?" He asked, Bokkun nodded and started off then stopped, "Who to?" he asked.

"Shadow the Hedgehog." Tails replied, then Bokkun flew off.

Tails sat back at his desk, unlocked the drawer and took out the blueprints. He spread them across the table and looked them over, then took the spare parts that he had left over from building the X-Tornado and started to weld and build Sonic's surprise present.

Tails hand built the basic structure and started to make the controls when he heard foot steps at the door, his ears flicked towards the door and he turned around to see a very grumpy black and red hedgehog standing there.

The hedgehog crossed his arms, "What was so important that I had to stop searching for a Chaos Emerald and come here for?" he asked, Tails jumped up and walked to the desk and pointed to the blueprints and plans, the whole thing was labeled, Sonic's Birthday Surprise.

Shadow looked at it for a moment then shrugged, "So?" Tails sighed, "Sonic's birthday is in three days, and I want to make him something special, but I need someone, about his height and weight to test it out and I was thinking that-"

"No." Shadow said firmly, knowing where this would lead. Tails nearly knocked the ruby red Emerald off the table, but caught it, "But Shadow, just think, if you help me now, then later when you need my help, or Sonic's then-"

"No." He replied flatly, then started to leave.

"Shadow, wait a minute, don't you have a birthday? Maybe I could get Sonic to help me make something special for you and-"

Shadow stopped, "If I help you will you stop whining?" he asked. Tails crossed his arms, "I wasn't whining . . . but yes." He said happily.

Shadow sighed and leaned against the wall, his eyes fixed on the gleaming red gem. Tails went back to work, all he needed Shadow to do was see if it worked and if it was the right size, so he went back to the shell that was in the shape of a boat.

Shadow then watched as Tails worked busily on whatever he was making, he walked over to the designs and inspected them, a quiet and hardly noticeable chuckle escaped his mouth as he realized it was something to help him stay out of the water.

Tails hadn't really noticed that Shadow was looking at the plans, he was busy at work adding weapons since the controls were now complete, he turned around to get a screwdriver when he saw Shadow looking over the plans.

"Shadow, you can't tell Sonic about any of this ok?" Tails asked, Shadow scoffed, "I don't even want to SEE that faker non-the-less tell him that I did something **nice** for him." He looked out the door, having second thoughts about helping out.

Tails shrugged and picked up his screwdriver and drill. He made a few holes on the side of the metal boat and added a wing-like attachment to it, which was supposedly to keep it balanced when Sonic would drive it.

Shadow went back to the wall and watched Tails work on welding the 'wings' on both sides, then his eyes began to close, but he managed to stay awake.

_No, I have to stay alert, I can't fall asleep, not here, not with this little kid._ Shadow decided to keep his mind busy, he stared into the deep red of the emerald that would be used to power Sonic's boat thing.

--------------

About 6 hours later, Shadow was still standing against the wall, still gazing into the hypnotic red of the emerald. Tails jumped up with delight, "Finished!" he said happily, it was getting dark and the street lights had just clicked on outside.

Shadow looked up, "You're done?" he asked almost in disbelief.

Tails nodded, "Well, for now, I need you to test it out, and tell me if it is too small, too big, not positioned right and if it's fast enough." He explained.

Shadow sighed and walked over to it, it looked like it would be perfect for Sonic, it really wasn't his style, but he looked at it, "It's not dark enough, try black." He said.

Tails giggled a little, "I meant for you to try it out, here . . " he hooked the boat like ship onto a trailer then hooked that to a truck, "Hey Shadow, can you drive?" he asked, getting into the passenger's seat.

"Because we need to go to the park, we will try it out at the lake, at night, Sonic will probably be asleep or busy right now and . . ." Shadow looked at the truck then opened the door and sat in, the keys were already in the car, he turned it and the car rumbled.

Tails watched, a little tense, _this probably wasn't the greatest idea, now that I think about it . . ._


	2. Second thoughts

Shadow hesitated for a moment then pressed gently on the gas, Tails tensioned slightly but remained silent.

Just before they went out Tails, without warning opened the door and jumped out, he ran over to the desk and grabbed the chaos emerald and put the blueprints away.

Shadow stopped, he wasn't expecting Tails to do that, he waited for Tails to come back in, Tails first put the emerald in the ship, then got back in, "Sorry, but that is the power, I couldn't forget that." Tails explained.

Shadow shook his head slightly in dismay then slowly drove out of the driveway, Tails gripped the arm rests tightly.

Shadow went down the road, not faster than usual, but not slow either, Tails was a little relieved and relaxed slightly. As he was driving, Shadow began to have second thoughts, _why am I doing this? What will **I** get out of this?_ He wondered.

He wasn't particularly paying attention to the road, which made Tails a little jumpy, because he nearly ran into 3 stop signs already.

Finally, Shadow stopped by the curb of the park and got out. Tails opened the door and walked to the back to where the ship was hooked up and unhooked it, he strained slightly to get it off the trailer, but finally succeeded.

He somehow got it to the edge of the lake and checked to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be, Shadow just watched as Tails did that.

Tails motioned towards Shadow, "Ok, so all you have to do to make it go is push this button . . ." he pointed to a red button, color coded for Sonic, "and to make it go faster or slower, this . . ." he motioned to a lever that looked like it moved up and down.

Shadow watched Tails' directions, and when he was finished Shadow asked, "What do I get for doing this for you?" Tails was about to say something but Shadow cut him off, "I mean besides that _warm fuzzy feeling inside that makes to feel tingly._" He said mockingly, obviously not wanting to do anything much for Sonic.

Tails thought for a moment, "Well, I don't really think that I have anything that you would really want . . ." he thought for a while.

Shadow waited impatiently and looked around, that's when the red Chaos Emerald caught his eye, there was something different about it, but he paid no attention to it. He walked over to it and took it from the controls of the ship that Tails made then said, "This will do,"

The emerald glowed slightly as Shadow said, "Chaos Sphere." And arrows of chaos energy shot Tails into a tree.

Then he held it up and it glowed once more, "Chaos Control!" and he was gone in a flash, it took Tails a couple of seconds to come to his senses, he stood up and realized Shadow had just ran off with his emerald.

_I guess a fake emerald was the right choice to power up Sonic's ship . . ._ Tails thought, holding his stomach, which still hurt from the Chaos Sphere.

-----

Shadow reappeared somewhere in the city, he was aiming for something a little higher, but then he realized why he hadn't gone where he wanted to, he watched as the red emerald disintegrated in his hand.

He looked up into the starry sky and thought he saw a blue streak, he shook his head, _I'm just imagining things,_ he thought, but then he saw it again, but this time, it went right past him, instead of over, then a blue hedgehog stopped right in front of him, "Oh hey there Shadow! Whacha up to?" he asked.

Shadow ignored him and started to walk down the road, occasionally glancing back, and every time, Sonic was right behind him, he didn't care what happened to Tails, he was probably stuck there since he couldn't drive, and is trying to find some way to hide the ship from Sonic, who is running about.

As Shadow walked down the side walk, there was something troubling him, he didn't know what or why, and it was bugging him, no matter how fast he walked or ran, he could still hear Sonic right behind him, as if waiting for something.

Shadow wasn't really thinking too hard about where he was running, but more that he had ditched Sonic, but he didn't stop running, just in case.

He looked back, no Sonic, he looked around, no Sonic, he looked back to the front and stumbled around a stop sign and stopped running, he leaned on a tree and calmly caught his breath, his eyes closed and the cool night air occasionally blowing.

He heard something, he wasn't sure how to identify it, it sounded like clinking, he opened an eye only to see Tails, not to far ahead of him, working on Sonic's ship!

He clenched his fist but pretended to ignore Tails, as if he didn't know he was there. After a while, he heard something else, his assumption of it was the ship actually starting up, but the thought of Tails driving that, when it should obviously be to big for him was too amusing to miss.

Shadow opened his eyes to see Tails, in the cockpit and the ship in the water. He watched as the boat slid gracefully through the water.

After Tails' test drive, he got out and saw Shadow, but said nothing.

"Just thought I'd let you know, that fake was following me, he might have seen it." With that, Shadow walked away.

Tails looked around, he thought at first that Sonic did see it, but shrugged it off and slid the ship onto the trailer and hooked the trailer back onto the car, he got in the driver's seat and realized that he was just a little bit too short, he needed someone taller to drive the truck.


End file.
